Posted 07.03.2012 at 3:15 pm
9 Comments
Lawn Furniture that Scrubs Itself of Scum in Sunlight
Before. And After.
Fraunhofer Institute via Discovery News
Just in time for that annual fourth of July cookout in which you drag all that filthy white lawn furniture from its molding, mildewing stack out behind the shed: a team from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute has created a titanium dioxide-doped polymer coating that kills germs and bacteria when exposed to sunlight. Self-cleaning lawn furniture surely can’t be far behind.
The coating works due to an electrochemical reaction that kicks in when ultraviolet light from the sun hits titanium dioxide, producing free radicals. These molecules with unpaired electrons at the surface have a tendency to degrade cell walls along with the DNA inside. Bacteria or fungi--and the black, grimy residues they create on your lawn furniture--are thus destroyed. Fraunhofer says the formula has so far been proven effective against 30 different kinds of bacteria and fungi.
Beyond furniture, the coating is also effective at keeping glass free of fingerprints, which disappear after just an hour of exposure to sunlight. Picture exterior windows that clean themselves daily or smartphones that lose their smudges in sunlight.
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Traditionally, we humans like to eat food and take vitamins to stop free radicals. Now I will be sitting my butT down on a lawn chair, perhaps wearing a a swim suit, or shorts and tank top and exposing my sking to a highly toxic radical producing paint.
Since the paint does interact with germs and bacteria, it not a long step to interact with my skin cells, too.
I hope this gets some serious FDA testing!
..........................................
See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!
I don't think the free radicals can penetrate your skin. Free radicals are everywhere around us. The free radicals we are concerned with are already inside in our body. coming from food, and other reaction inside the body..
Exposure to enough free radicals often enough (whenever the sun is out) seems like at least ONE is bound to penetrate your skin, and it only takes one damaged cell and some very lucky timing to develop cancer. I'm onboard with the first guy^
Many cancers do not show up for years in the future, 5 or 10 or 20 years.
Imagine a person having this furniture and enjoying it for 5 years and then toss it in the trash, each day their skin absorbs this titanium dioxide. So then in the future, if you do develop some type of cancer from this chemical, with the distance in time, the manufacture will be incomplete denial of responsibility and it will be you against their 20 or more lawyers to prove they are responsible for something that cause you harm 20 years in the past.
A little soap, water, elbo greese can keep you lawn chair clean too. ;)
I think titanium dioxide is already used in sunscreen, makeup products, and tattoo pigments.
WERE ALL GONNA DIeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Must find chocolate! Must find chocolate! Must find....
Mmmm, COMP! Ah! found chocolate.
Now worries. ;)
Titanium dioxide is used in nearly all toothpastes. So I wouldnt be too worried about it.
I'd settle for self-cleaning dishes.
Does titanium dioxide get rid of dust, dirt and bird poop too or only the bacterias that eat it?
Seems, we are still left with having to clean our lawn chairs after all.